Дейдесхайм: Виноградный рай в Пфальце

Deidesheim is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland Palatinate, Germany with some 3,700 inhabitants. The town lies in the northwest of the Rhine Neckar urban agglomeration and since 1973 it has been the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim. The most important industries are tourism and winegrowing. Deidesheim's two biggest folk festivals revolve around wine: the Geißbockversteigerung (literally “Billygoat Auction”) and the Deidesheimer Weinkerwe (wine fair).

Deidesheim lies in the Palatinate in the Weinstraße region (as distinct from the Deutsche Weinstraße – or German Wine Route – itself). Deidesheim's municipal area stretches for , covering parts of three morphological and ecological units, namely the Palatinate Forest, the Weinstraße region's uplands and the Upper Rhine Plain: 23.9% of this area is used for agriculture, mainly grape growing for wine, 67.9% of it is wooded, 0.6% is water, 7.4% is residential or transport related and 0.1% of the land fits under none of these headings. The town itself lies some 1 000 m east of the Haardt. Deidesheim is found in the northwest of the Rhine Neckar urban region in the middle of the Palatinate wine region. Running through the town is the German Wine Route.

Clockwise from the north, these are Forst an der Weinstraße, Friedelsheim, Rödersheim Gronau, Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim, Meckenheim, Ruppertsberg, Neustadt an der Weinstraße, Lindenberg, Lambrecht, Frankeneck, Neidenfels and Wachenheim an der Weinstraße.

Macroclimatically, Deidesheim is characterized by the surrounding relief: The Palatinate Forest to the west forces the main, rainbearing winds from the west and southwest upwards, whereupon they cool and their water condenses, raining down on the Palatinate Forest. The now drier air then falls at the forest's east side warming back up, making for a drier, less cloudy climate with warmer temperatures to the forest's lee. The number of summery days (that is, with temperatures reaching or surpassing 25 °C) far exceeds the countrywide average by 40 or 50 each year, and the yearly precipitation level of just over is below the threshold, set at , for German regions that are considered dry. From a local climatic point of view, Deidesheim is part of the climatically favoured foothill zone of the Weinstraße region. With a mean elevation of 235 m above sea level at the forest's edge, the lands of the Deidesheim area reach down to some 130 m above sea level at the lower mid slope area in the foothill zone. The outliers of the Madental and the Sensental, as well as those of the Einsteltal (dales) northwest of Deidesheim, form outflow pathways for the cold winds coming from the Haardt. Also affecting the local climate are small hollows and dells in which cold air can gather. Climatic conditions in Deidesheim have almost Mediterranean traits as witnessed by ripening figs, almonds and bitter oranges in the area. Profiting especially from the favourable climate are warmth loving crops such as grapes. This favours the growing of Qualitätsweine, which is done here on a grand scale. With its long growing season, the wine can age fully. Thoroughly fermented wines have a high quality, and frost damage is rare.

The most important event in the Deidesheim area's, and indeed the whole eastern Palatinate's, geological development was the rifting and downfaulting relative to the Haardt of the Upper Rhine Plain, whose onset was some 65,000,000 years ago in the Lower Tertiary and which has lasted until today. The area before the Haardt range was over time scored by brooks that rise in the Palatinate Forest. During the ice ages, there were gradual solifluction on the slopes and also wind abrasion. These processes led to a transformation of the original surface relief in whose wake an alluvial fan with embanked or eroded terraces formed. In colder, drier phases of the Würm glaciation, loess beds came into being through the influence of the wind, whereby the loess gathered mostly at faults and alee of small hollows. West and northwest of Deidesheim, the Voltziensandstein that predominates in the middle of the Palatinate Forest from the Triassic represents the oldest stratigraphic unit within Deidesheim's limits, the so called “Rehberg Layer”. In Deidesheim's southwest, Pleistocene deposits can be found; these came into being some 1,500,000 years ago. In the north, Deidesheim is girded by a band of Pliocene deposits that formed some 3,000,000 years ago. In Deidesheim's east are found the newest stratigraphic units in the Holocene deposits. With foreign material such as basalt, bricks and dung, man has altered the natural soil composition. The most important soil types in the Deidesheim area are various rigosols, rendzina, parabraunerde and limestone bearing terra fusca.

The name Deidesheim had its first documentary mention in 699, although the town now standing in its current location only arose, it is believed, in the 13th century around the former Deidesheim Castle. From 770 onwards, there is proof of winegrowing here. In the early 19th century, Deidesheim was the first place in the Palatinate whose wineries were growing Qualitätsweine. Today, Deidesheim is one of the Palatinate wine region's biggest winegrowing centres. The first time when the placename was mentioned in 699 was in a document in which the Lotharingian nobleman Erimbert bequeathed estates under his ownership to Weißenburg Monastery in Alsace (in the now French town called Wissembourg). Further mentions came in documents from Fulda Abbey (770 or 771) and Lorsch Abbey (791), in the latter of which Deidesheim is already named as being a winegrowing centre. Documentary mentions from the Early and High Middle Ages, however, deal with various settled places that lay not in the town's current place, but rather elsewhere within a greater municipal area around Deidesheim. Frankish burial grounds in and around the neighbouring municipality Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim lead to the conclusion that there were individual settlements at least as long ago as the 6th century, some of which were forsaken. The first documentary mention is believed to refer to neighbouring Niederkirchen. When today's Deidesheim arose as a settlement next to Niederkirchen is not known with any certainty; the two centres only became separate from each other when the Prince Bishop's castle, Schloss Deidesheim, was built, and for this the first evidence dates from 1292. The first confirmed distinction between Niederdeidesheim – today's Niederkirchen – and Oberdeidesheim – today's Deidesheim – only came in the 13th century. In the Early Middle Ages, Deidesheim was mainly under the aforesaid Erimbert's and his descendants’ ownership. Among them were a few Counts of Metz, Upper Lotharingian dukes and Salians, and they had holdings in Deidesheim for almost 400 years, until Henry IV (1056) and Margravine Matilda of Tuscany (1086) gave up their Deidesheim holdings and donated them to the Cathedral Chapter or Saint Guy's Monastery in Speyer. Not long thereafter, Deidesheim passed into the Speyer Prince Bishops’ hands and thenceforth belonged to the Prince Bishopric of Speyer. Other, but less important, holdings in Deidesheim in the Early Middle Ages were owned by Lorsch Abbey and the Bishopric of Worms.

As the Speyer Bishopric's records confirm, Deidesheim quickly grew into an economically important centre to which contributed financially strong Jews, who had their own community with a synagogue in Deidesheim until the pogroms during the time of the plague about 1349. Along with this development arose the townsmen's wish to offer the flourishing community greater protection against attacks, which was granted at last by Bishop of Speyer Gerhard von Ehrenberg in 1360 when he granted Deidesheim fortification rights. On Saint Valentine's Day 1395, the Bohemian King Wenceslaus (Wenzel in German, Václav in Czech) granted Deidesheim town rights. These were given – as was then customary – not to the town itself, but to the Bishop of Speyer, since he was the town's lord. The fortification could only afford the town limited protection in wartime. The town was conquered in 1396, 1460, 1525, 1552, several times in the Thirty Years' War, and in 1689 and 1693 (Nine Years' War), sometimes getting plundered and set on fire in the process.

With the invasion by French militiamen, Deidesheim passed to France in 1794. Although it was reconquered by Imperial troops in 1795, it soon fell again to France, and remained under French administration until Napoleon's overlordship collapsed in 1814. Under the new territorial order prescribed by the Congress of Vienna, Deidesheim belonged, beginning in 1816, to the Kingdom of Bavaria as part of the Rheinkreis (“Rhine District”), which from 1838 bore the name Pfalz (“Palatinate”). In 1819, the outlying centre of Niederkirchen, long considered to be a constituent community of Deidesheim, was demerged from the town, and has been an autonomous municipality ever since. In 1865, Deidesheim acquired a connection on the new Bad Dürkheim Neustadt an der Weinstraße railway line. Around the start of the 20th century, there were other industrial achievements. In 1894, Deidesheim got a gasworks, in 1896 electric lighting, in 1897 a local electrical network, and in 1898, the town was connected to a public watermain. Furthermore, in the late 19th century, all important estates had a telephone connection.

After the First World War in 1918, French troops moved into town. Troop units were billeted here. This persisted until France withdrew from the Rhineland in July 1930. In August 1921 there was a great forest fire near Deidesheim in which some 300 ha of woodland burnt, of which 130 ha was in the Deidesheim town forest. To fight the fire, all Deidesheim's men aged 17 and over were recruited. Quenching the fire took three long days and nights. During the Second World War, Deidesheim was mostly spared any great war damage at first, but then, on 9 March 1945, not long before the war ended, the local infirmary was struck by a bomb, which killed nine people. On 21 March 1945, American troops moved into town, ending the war, at least in Deidesheim. With the formation of the state of Rhineland Palatinate in 1946, Deidesheim found itself within it, and no longer part of Bavaria. In 1968, Deidesheim was given the designation Luftkurort (“climatic spa”). Along with Forst an der Weinstraße, Ruppertsberg, Niederkirchen and Meckenheim, Deidesheim has since 1972 formed the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim. Great media coverage came Deidesheim's way with all the visits by high ranking foreign state visitors invited to Deidesheim by then Chancellor Helmut Kohl between 1989 and 1997. Often, state guests were served the dish de (“Palatine Sow’s Stomach”). The state guests who came with Kohl were British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (April 1989), Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (November 1990), Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (June 1991), US Vice President Dan Quayle (February 1992), Czech President Václav Havel (October 1993), Russian President Boris Yeltsin (May 1994), British Prime Minister John Major (October 1994) and the Spanish King and Queen Juan Carlos I and Sofía (July 1997).

On the same spot where now stands Saint Ulrich's Parish Church once stood a chapel consecrated to Saint Mary. This chapel was first mentioned about 1300. Owing to the transfer of the parish seat from Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim to Deidesheim sometime between 1437 and 1460, a new, roomier church building was needed. Work on the new building began before the middle of the century, about 1444. In 1473, the work had been finished as far as it could be. Saint Ulrich's Parish Church (Pfarrkirche St. Ulrich) with its 62.7 m tall, somewhat crooked tower is the only major church building in the Palatinate to have been built in the mid 15th century. The Reformation could not prevail in the Prince Bishopric of Speyer, to which Deidesheim belonged and whose bishop was Deidesheim's town lord (cuius regio, eius religio). Nevertheless, it wrought considerable difficulties with the allocation of the Deidesheim rectorate in the latter half of the 16th century. In 1750 and 1820 respectively, the branch parishes of Niederkirchen and Forst were split away from Deidesheim again and were raised to fully fledged parishes in their own right. For a short time after the French annexation of the Rhine’s left bank, the parish of Deidesheim belonged to the Bishopric of Mainz before being ceded back to the Bishopric of Speyer. Under the new order of deaconries made in the diocese of Speyer in 1980, Deidesheim was assigned to the deaconry of Bad Dürkheim. Owing to a dearth of priests, Saint Ulrich’s parish has since 2006 formed a parish union with Saint Margaret’s (Forst) and Saint Martin’s (Ruppertsberg) whose seat is in Deidesheim. In late 2007, 2,165 of Deidesheim’s inhabitants were Catholic, which made them 56.87% of the population.

The Protestants’ share of Deidesheim's population was long very slight, with only four in the town in 1788. By 1863 that had risen to 38. In 1874 and 1875, the Protestant church arose from the conversion of a former barn. In 1891, this acquired a tower. The number of Protestants in town also swelled after the Second World War with the arrival of refugees. Since 1957, Deidesheim has formed its own parish with Forst an der Weinstraße, Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim and Ruppertsberg; the places in Wachenheim an der Weinstraße used to also belong. The Deidesheim parish belongs to the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate (Protestant State Church), and since 1984 has had its own rectorate. In late 2007, 924 of Deidesheim's inhabitants were Evangelical, which made them 24.27% of the population. The former Jewish graveyard on Platanenweg is under town ownership. It is some 800 m² in area and is under monumental protection. All together, 95 gravestones from the time between the 18th and 20th centuries could be restored in 1946 after they were destroyed in 1938.

Deidesheim is home to the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Togo.

The Late Gothic Catholic Saint Ulrich's Parish Church was built between 1440 and 1480 as a successor to an older Chapel of Saint Mary. It is a three naved groin vaulted column basilica and the Palatinate's only major church building preserved from the mid 15th century. The church is counted among the most important witnesses to Late Gothic architecture in the Palatinate by the Bad Dürkheim district's catalogue of memorial sites.

This inn was built about 1160 as an estate of the Cistercian Eußerthal Abbey to lodge and entertain travellers. From this branch location of the Abbey grew today's inn, whose innkeepers and leaseholders can be traced back in an unbroken line to the year 1374. The inn is therefore said to be the Palatinate’s oldest. Today the inn is run by the Wachenheim winery Weingut Dr. Bürklin Wolf.

Castle Deidesheim (Schloss Deidesheim) was built in the 13th century when Deidesheim still belonged to the Prince Bishopric of Speyer. It was likely the seed from which sprang today’s town of Deidesheim, and was the seat of the Speyer Episcopal administration. Because it has been destroyed twice, the castle has been subject to profound building alterations.

On the Martensberg (mountain), some northwest of Deidesheim, are found the Heidenlöcher (singular: Heidenloch – “heathen holes”), the ruins of a refuge castle, which once offered Deidesheimers shelter to which they could flee in times of war. It is believed to have been built in the 9th or 10th century, but never used for its intended purpose. Its utterly ruined state today is merely from the ravages of time, not war.

The Deidesheimer Spital is a short term residence for seniors with a 500 year history full of changes. It was endowed by the Deidesheim knight Nikolaus von Böhl and served over time as both a civilian and military hospital. In an air raid on the Spital in the Second World War, nine people lost their lives. Since 1994 the Café Alt Deidesheim has belonged to it as a “meeting place of the generations”, as has the Gästehaus „Ritter von Böhl“ (inn), whose proceeds go to benefit the Spital.

The former synagogue was built in the mid 19th century by the Jewish community. With its dissolution under Nazi Germany, the building was liquidated and used for a few decades as a storehouse. In the late 1980s, the building was placed under monumental protection and later bought by the town of Deidesheim. Since its renovation about the turn of the millennium, the former synagogue has been used for cultural events.

The Historic Town Hall (Historisches Rathaus) was built in 1532. After sustaining heavy damage in the Nine Years' War, it was built, this time in the Baroque style. Its twin outdoor stairways with its “baldachin” porch come from 1724. The historic council chamber inside was done in Renaissance Revival style in 1912. Stained glass in the windows from the same year shows the coats of arms of resident landed families. In the building has been since 1986 the Museum für Weinkultur, whose exhibits reflect the history of winegrowing.

The Geißbockbrunnen (“Billygoat Fountain”) from 1985 was created by sculptor Gernot Rumpf. It can be found in the Deidesheim Town Square (Stadtplatz) across from the Stadthalle (literally “town hall”, but actually an event venue) and follows the theme of the Geißbockversteigerung (see Regular events below), which is held in Deidesheim each year on Whit Tuesday. The Andreasbrunnen (“Andrew’s Fountain”) on the Deidesheim Marketplace (Marktplatz) comes from 1851 and was endowed by Ludwig Andreas Jordan and his kin. It is named for his father Andreas Jordan (1775–1848), Deidesheim's former mayor and a trailblazer for producing Qualitätsweine in the Palatinate. The fountain was poured by the Gienanthsche Hütte (foundry) in Eisenberg and is based on Italian Renaissance models. The Geschichts und Brauchtumsbrunnen (“History and Tradition Fountain”) at the Königsgarten (“King’s Garden”) shows on the one hand important junctures in Deidesheim's history, such as the granting of town rights or the lordship of the Prince Bishopric of Speyer, and on the other hand it recognizes local clubs who give themselves over to upholding traditions, such as the costume group and the Kerwebuwe (“kermis lads”). The fountain was created by sculptor Karl Seiter and finished in 2003.

The Geißbockversteigerung (literally “Billygoat Auction”) is a folk festival in the form of a historical game that is celebrated each year on the Tuesday after Whitsun. The festival began with an old agreement with the neighbouring municipality of Lambrecht under which each year to pay off debts for woodland and meadow rights within Deidesheim's limits, a billygoat had to be delivered by Lambrecht, which was then auctioned, with the proceeds going to Deidesheim's benefit. This historical situation grew over time into a folk festival.

Deidesheim vineyards belong to the Palatinate wine region, and also to the Mittelhaardt Deutsche Weinstraße winegrowing area (Anbaubereich). Local vineyard names used to be borne in ownership documents that described the plots’ locations and their boundaries. Some 170 vineyards and plots of greatly varying size are known to have been within the limits of Deidesheim, Niederkirchen, Forst and Ruppertsberg; they stretched partly across municipal boundaries as they now exist (they were not assigned until 1829). With the amendment to the Rhineland Palatinate Wine Law in 1971, the Deidesheim vineyards were newly organized. Today there are eleven “single locations” – Einzellagen – and one winemaking appellation – Weingroßlage: the Einzellagen are Grainhübel, Herrgottsacker, Hohenmorgen, Kalkofen (whose name, oddly enough, means “lime kiln”), Kieselberg, Langenmorgen, Leinhöhe, Letten, Mäushöhle, Nonnenstück and Paradiesgarten; the Weingroßlage is called Hofstück. All together, the Einzellagen have an area of 523.58 ha; the Weingroßlage, to which belong many other Einzellagen in other centres, has an area of 1 401 ha. No longer to be found since the reorganization are names such as Geheu, Hahnenböhl, Kränzler, Reiß, Rennpfad, Vogelsang and Weinbach.

Long before there were domesticated grapes, wild grapes grew in the area around Deidesheim. Witnessing this are remains of vines from some 4,500,000 years ago found about north of Deidesheim near[Ungstein [de]. It is said to be certain, however, that wine was being made in Central Europe no earlier than the beginning of the Christian Era. Whether it was being done at Deidesheim at this time is a matter of speculation: and Rhein Neckar Fernsehen.

The hotel Deidesheimer Hof with its “Nobelrestaurant Schwarzer Hahn”, once run by leading edge cook Manfred Schwarz, is known above all for former Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s visits, on which he often brought along state guests to entertain. Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, among others, thus all got to know the traditional Palatine dish Saumagen (“sow’s stomach”). The Deidesheimer Hof became the second five star hotel in Rhineland Palatinate in 2001 since the classification was introduced in 1996.

The winery's founder was Franz Peter Buhl (1809–1862); in 1849 it came into being through the so called Jordansche Teilung, a division of inheritance (see Winegrowing history above). Today the winery cultivates a vineyard area of some 52 ha, mostly within Deidesheim's and Forst's limits and is a member of the VDP. In 1989 the house was leased to Japanese investors. Since 2005 it has belonged to the Niederberger Group.

The foundation stone for this wine estate was laid by Andreas Jordan (1775–1848), who with his ideas promoted the production and marketing of Palatine Qualitätsweine. Today the winery cultivates a vineyard area of some 42 ha, among them many locations within Deidesheim's and Forst's limits. The winery is a member of the VDP; in 2002 it was bought by the Neustadt entrepreneur Achim Niederberger and now belongs to his business group.

The winery came into being through the so called Jordansche Teilung (see Winegrowing history above); its first owner and founder was Friedrich Deinhard (1812–1871) from Koblenz whose father Johann Friedrich Deinhard had founded the Deinhard firm. The winery cultivates a vineyard area of some 40 ha within Deidesheim's, Ruppertsberg’s and Forst's limits and belongs to the VDP. Since late 2007, it has belonged to the Niederberger Group.

In this business, which once dealt purely with winegrowing, Klaus Reis began to build a Sekt wine cellar after the Second World War alongside the bottle wholesale business founded by his father Johannes. This Sektkellerei now works 6 ha of its own vineyards around Deidesheim and draws the greater part of the raw wines that it needs to make Sekt from wineries in the nearby area. It is a member of the Deutscher Sektverband and is under the family Reis's ownership.

This company is one of Germany's last producers of candied fruit used in the manufacture of sweetmeats and pralines. It was founded in 1890 by Josef Biffar, who had dealt much with the process of candying. Linked with the company is the Josef Biffar winery [de], which belongs to the VDP.